I thought at my age I was the last person to start back welding. Last welding done in my school days. That was a long time ago. Now I want to relearn the skill and do my own repair. Anyway, got a friend who was a welding instructor and he is making it easier for me.

Thanks Guy's Since I joined this site I have been reading about how a lot of you are fabrication and fixing things by welding. I have wanted to learn for a quite some time so I decided to take the plunge, Never to old :smile1:

My Son-in-law can weld quite well and his brother is even better so I'm going to get him to teach me. A friend has a small welder I can have so I figured that would be good to learn on. Has anyone used the helmets from Harbor freight?

Must be a trend. I picked up a small Century wire feed welder the other day. A good deal with a cart and an auto darkening helmet. I need to pick up the rest of the safety gear I need and I've been watching some welding videos and learning about it on line. I've never welded before so it's new to me and I'm over 50. I've got a couple of GT related repairs to do in the spring after I get some practice. I don't know if I trust an auto darkening helmet. I'll probably pick up a conventional one to have as well.

After over 40 years of welding I finally acquired an auto helmet 2 years ago. Neck problems brought this on. I'm quite certain that you will flash yourself less frequently with the auto helmet. Unfortunately I find myself trying to flip my helmet down before I strike an arc.
The one drawback with the auto helmets is they tend to not function properly if it's very cold.
Enjoy your new welder.

I thought at my age I was the last person to start back welding. Last welding done in my school days. That was a long time ago. Now I want to relearn the skill and do my own repair. Anyway, got a friend who was a welding instructor and he is making it easier for me.

Thanks Guy's Since I joined this site I have been reading about how a lot of you are fabrication and fixing things by welding. I have wanted to learn for a quite some time so I decided to take the plunge, Never to old :smile1:

My Son-in-law can weld quite well and his brother is even better so I'm going to get him to teach me. A friend has a small welder I can have so I figured that would be good to learn on. Has anyone used the helmets from Harbor freight?

Both of you guys should do good, it sure is a handy skill to have and would be easier to learn with an experienced hand beside you. See below. Good luck, be careful and safe!

Must be a trend. I picked up a small Century wire feed welder the other day. A good deal with a cart and an auto darkening helmet. I need to pick up the rest of the safety gear I need and I've been watching some welding videos and learning about it on line. I've never welded before so it's new to me and I'm over 50. I've got a couple of GT related repairs to do in the spring after I get some practice. I don't know if I trust an auto darkening helmet. I'll probably pick up a conventional one to have as well.

Brian you are doing it the way I learned. I have never been afraid to tackle almost any project or task after gaining the needed knowledge like you have and I have never had any "training" with a welder. But seem to get a little better every time I use it. See below. Good luck, be careful and safe!

After over 40 years of welding I finally acquired an auto helmet 2 years ago. Neck problems brought this on. I'm quite certain that you will flash yourself less frequently with the auto helmet. Unfortunately I find myself trying to flip my helmet down before I strike an arc. The one drawback with the auto helmets is they tend to not function properly if it's very cold. Enjoy your new welder.

I got an auto darkening helmet last year and love it over the old fashioned one, which I still have just in case. And I too reached for the helmet quite a few times before I got used to it. Welding is one of those things that you dont need all the time but sure is nice to have one when the need arises.

Yep, the auto-darkening, and they work great. I have 2 helmets at my personal shop, one being from HF, then the farm shops is a HF. Both the HF helmets are several years old & not a problem out of either one. Original battery even......I guess they still have a battery, but they are solar paneled.

Come on now guys, is that our helmets or our old eyes, I seem to have the same trouble.

In my case, I hate to say it, but it's my aging eyes. Changing cover lenses sure does help though! Last time it didn't help much to change the lens, so I removed the auto lens box & gave it a good de-smoking. BIG difference!

Mine was a gift and it came from TSC. It has an adjustable lens so you can change the tint. It is the one thing that causes some problems. Once in awhile it won't turn dark so I have to change the adjustment a little and then it works fine. The wiper in the pot must get dirty. Other then that it work fine.
As a side note, from my research, even if the lens does not darken you are still protected from UV harm. As a matter of fact it doesn't even cause spots in front of my eyes.

The soapstone they sell alongside other products helps with seeing the weld and not missing. Use that.
And if you're ever sitting on the fence about getting a gas welder or not... Get the gas. You can always save $ and running for gas by just running flux core through the same welder. The gas has 0 slag and very little splatter for when that's wanted.